New Dylan

Dylan is a talent - let there be no doubt. At 22 years of age he brings more to a song than many twice his age. As beautiful as they are bleak, they serve to showcase his age (oh, the heartache is at the forefront at 22)  his Buckley/Isaak like vocal (a fine thing) and his way with a melody.
With an eye toward future and more mature subject matter, but with an understanding of the maturation process, I put Dylan on my "Keep on the Radar" list. This is a fine effort...

http://www.dylanleblanc.com/

The first track on Dylan's new release - PartOne: The End
Dylan describes what the song is about: “I had a crazy dream and this was the theme music to it. In my dream I was walking through the forest, and there was a battle going on and everyone was shooting each other and then people were hanging out and smoking cigarettes with their rifles and I remember there was a beautiful woman in the dream with long black hair. She was like a painting, and every time she turned the corner, the rest of the world would also become a painting. Every time I wanted to go closer, she would round the next corner. I woke up and I said “I have to write that song”. I picked it out on my guitar and I started thinking about innocence and what age is it that innocence stops and you start to become more aware of the world. When you become wise, things aren’t as fun and good as they used to be. It takes the magic out of it.”
‘Cast The Same Old Shadow’ Tracklisting
1. Part One: The End
2. Innocent Sinner
3. Brother
4. Diamonds and Pearls
5. Where Are You Now
6. Chesapeake Lane
7. The Ties That Bind
8. Comfort Me
9. Cast The Same Old Shadow
10. Lonesome Waltz
The bulk of the album was recorded in the legendary Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, and then completed in New Orleans. It was co-produced by Dylan and Grammy award-winning engineer Trina Shoemaker (Queens of the Stone Age, Sheryl Crow, Emmylou Harris).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/8v28

BBC Review

LeBlanc’s second album presents proof positive that break-ups aren’t all bad.

Leonie Cooper 2012-08-20

Unless you’re fond of wallowing in misfortune, Cast the Same Old Shadow is not to be experienced on the back of a break-up. Poor Dylan LeBlanc, however, can’t help himself. Recorded after he’d been dumped, if it’s not clear from its opener’s title that this second album is awash with heartache, it’s sledgehammered home once the dejected vocals swoop in.
LeBlanc’s in possession of a breathier version of Fleet Foxes’ Robin Pecknold’s woodland falsetto, which seems almost embarrassed to have grabbed attentions with its rugged purity. He might only be 22, but LeBlanc’s seen a darkness, one which has him coming across as a more rustic Jeff Buckley.
Though born in Louisiana, LeBlanc’s sound isn’t particularly Southern. Instead, he conjures up visions of the plaid-shirted tribes of the Pacific Northwest and of Neil Young humbly combing his sideburns by a sequoia before whittling a love token for the unrequited object of his affections.
The follow-up to 2010’s Paupers Field, this set plunders the overarching melancholy of Townes Van Zandt, making for an emotionally draining listen. The album’s cathartic country title track is a case in point. Of the song, LeBlanc says: “I wrote that song in my house and everyone had just left including a girl I liked, and she didn’t feel the same way about me. I wrote this song since I was feeling sorry for myself.”
What makes LeBlanc special, though, is his way of infusing the bleakest moments with slivers of hope – a major chord here, a lyric that sounds like it was sung from under a semi-smile there.
The gut-punching riffs of standout track Brother are counter-balanced with a jaunty hillbilly shuffle and, with its moaning pedal steel, Comfort Me gives off a surprising barroom bounce. Where Are You Now, another song about being ditched, allows sweeping 1960s symphonics to provide a dash of optimism.
LeBlanc admits he was listening to Beach House when recording this album and you can hear their influence, albeit subtly, in the hypnotic spreading of sound in the likes of Diamonds and Pearls. Proof positive that break-ups aren’t all bad.